A few reasons to stay at home today

I received these pictures at lunch from Kate today and all I could think of was how could leave my princess at home while I'm away at work. I always used to wonder how and why people stayed at home with their kids and now I know!

Special education subs..... Geeze

Great post from a friend and colleague below. @walterteach

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Special education subs..... Geeze

I want to preface this post by saying I am not a perfect teacher and i am not a "special person" because I can handle teaching special education.

I am always floored by the individual's who sign up to substitute special education. They tend to fall into one of the 4 categories

53% have no clue about special Ed and are extremely uncomfortable around the kids I teach. This really just angers me.

36% think our students are "sweet" and sub with us because they think we go to the store and watch movies all days. These are the subs that ask me ignorant questions.

12% - 1 of the first two types or random person who kinda gets it and is trainable. They see that there is more and want to learn and make a difference.

2% these are previous special Ed teachers and some paras who are fabulous. Also the odd person who loves and accepts unconditionally. I have only ever seen 2 of these subs!

Dave

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"The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that..."

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"The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that..."

"The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds."

— Henry Rollins - The Iron"

Dave

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Favorite new picture

So, the photo below has become my new favorite family picture of the girls and I.

First Half-Marathon

So, I can finally say that my first half-marathon is behind me. I completed the Atlanta half on Thanksgiving this past week. It was exhilarating, exhausting, and an all around amazing experience. My goal was to come in under 2 hours and although I did not meet that, I was pleased with my 2:01 that included an emergency bathroom stop at mile 10. I just could not bring myself to pee on myself like the older gentlemen did in front of me at mile 11. I came away from this race so excited that I signed up for a new race the next day (Xterra thrill in the hills trail run half-marathon). I recently told a running partner that I was in search of my niche activity that would keep me coming back and I can now say that I may have found it. I did a sprint tri a few months back and thought surely, I'll be addicted to these but nope, it just did not feel the same as my half marathon. I can't wait until my recovery phase is over to start training for the next race. I'm taking a good 13 days off from leg work and planning to pick back up afterwards. In the meantime workouts will be a mix of crossfit/men's fitness magazine/and the ole Notre Dame 1970's book that I have sworn by for years. In my prep for this next race I plan to try not to lean out too much and maintain my lifts with more regularity. At times, during this last training phase..it seemed all I ever did was run and forget about my lift days.

Race prep

So, the race is coming up in two weeks now. I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous even though I trained way past my plan. Did a 10 mile trail run yesterday at Passive Park here in Social Circle and my hips/ankles are feeling it today! Time to taper the runs before race day comes.

Iron Dungeon

So, this posting initiated from our recent new camera purchase. Kate and I had to get a new camera before the baby comes so I may or may not have decided to learn to use the camera via weight room photos.. I was just hoping to practice taking some shots a give a glimpse of our work out room.

 

                                               Power tower pull up bars...spent many evenings hanging from these..

                                         Overview of the power tower, weight tree, and treadmill in the background.

                                    Weight tree with some extra bars....

 

                                             Weighted vest or what I like to call the torture vest, knocked out two miles with this thing one night around the subdivision and burned out the knees for a few days.

                                                 Another shot of the weight tree

                                                 The back to the roman chair portion of the power tower

                                           Treadmill that has a good many miles on it and was getting used a good bit until I started getting into long runs and the treadmill became too boring

                                           Overall shot of the bench area

                                      My dad bought me this book at a library sale for 75cents I have been using it for the last 5 years off and on.

   

Shot of the pushup bars on the power tower, spent a lot of nights here and also use them to transition between burpees